THE DISPERSION OF THE 
AMERICAN TORIES 



BY 



WILBUR H, SIEBERT 





Reprinted fi-om the Mississippi 
Valley Histokical Review 
Vol. 1. Spi-ttembpr, 1014 






THE DISPERSION OF THE AMERICAN TORIES 



Gift 
Author 

SE? 25 ISf^ 



THE DISPERSION OF THE AMERICAN TORIES ' 

Norfolk and Charleston, Savannah and St. Augustine, Phila- 
delphia and New York, Boston, Penobscot, Fort Niagara and 
Detroit were, during their days of occupation by the British, the 
most important centers to which were drawn, as by powerful 
magnets, those elements of the colonial population which were 
forced out of their various localities by the intolerance and con- 
flict of a struggle that was marked by the characteristics of 
civil war both in the populous sections and in the back country. 
The list of such centers might be greatly lengthened by includ- 
ing those Canadian towns and villages that were near enough 
to our northern frontier to be used by the English as military 
posts and magazines, and by the same token were accessible to 
numbers of fugitive adherents of the crown whose zeal found 
vent in joining loyalist regiments. But the loyalist regiments 
in Canada would have filled but slowly, if they had depended 
entirely on voluntary enlistments. From various posts recruit- 
ing officers were sent into the enemy's country to bring in Tory 
groups to be armed and employed on marauding and rescue ex- 
peditions. In these ways not less than ten corps of American 
loyalists, several of which reached a maximum of five hundred 
or six hundred men, were formed and maintained throughout 
the Revolution in what was called the Northern or Canadian 
Division. 

Large numbers of these recruits proceeded northwards by 
way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain to one or another 
of the chain of posts along the Richelieu. Not all loyalists, 
however, followed this direct course: many entered Canada 
along routes, of which there were five in general use, running 
from the Hudson to points between Oswego and Montreal, the 
refugees being quartered at various places on both sides of the 
river St. Lawrence. Not infrequently the recruiting agents led 

1 This paper was read at the meeting of the American Historical Association at 
Charleston, South Carolina, December 30, 1913. 



186 W, H. Siebert m. v. h. r. 

in women and children with the men, some arriving, we are told, 
**in a state of nakedness and great want." In other instances 
families were brought in under flags of truce, a system that was 
in operation on Lake Chaniplain from the fall of 1778 if not 
earlier, and was regularly employed throughout the remainder 
of the contest. As the British were in control of the lake, their 
vessels and bateaux were in constant requisition for the convey- 
ance of aggregations of families from Pointe au Fer, Mill Bay, 
Skenesborough, Crown Point, and other convenient places to St. 
John, north of the lake, whence they were sent under guidance 
to various localities in the province of Quebec to join husbands 
and fathers from whom they had been separated for longer or 
shorter periods. Sometimes these fatherless groups braved the 
severities of the winter season in order to reach the goal of 
safety and loyalty where fugitive or exiled kindred already 
awaited them. 

Many of these refugees were from Charlotte and Tryon coun- 
ties and the city of Albany in New York state, while a smaller 
proportion came from New England. Not a few — probably no 
less than 1800 — had enlisted under Burgoyne, but had been 
left at the catastrophe to look after themselves. In truth, Bur- 
goyne blamed his Tory contingent for his defeat, and completely 
ignored it in his articles of capitulation. This dehberate neg- 
lect was partly remedied by the Tories themselves, for, the 
night before the surrender at Saratoga, some of them decided 
to make their escape, and struck out through the woods or fol- 
lowed the Indian paths to Canada. Others, however, awaited 
the formal capitulation, and consequently did not find another 
opportunity of getting to the desired haven for weeks or months 
afterward. As Burgoyne carried with him blank commissions 
under which to enrol new regiments of refugees, and as he de- 
tached Baum's men in order to fill these regiments, his treat- 
ment of the loyalists must be regarded as reprehensible to the 
last degree. 

Later on, expeditions were sent out for the express purpose 
of rescuing parties of loyalists from hostile communities. At 
least three such expeditions were authorized by Governor Hal- 
dimand for the year 1780. Two of these were led by Sir John 
Johnson who delivered 150 loyalists from the Mohawk Valley 



Vol. I, No. 2 Dispersion of American Tories 187 

on his first incursion but was thwarted by the Americans on his 
second, the Tories being confined in the forts while the danger 
lasted. The third expedition, under Majors Carleton and 
Houghton, succeeded in bringing in a number of famiUes from 
south of Lake George, in whose train others followed, including 
one group of ''about 230 souls. "^ These and the other ex- 
pedients of border warfare produced results as unmistakable 
as they were dreadful : they finally reduced the border lands 
to a state of desolation. A year and a half before the close of 
the war it was estimated that Tryon County alone had lost two- 
thirds of its inhabitants, of whom 613 were reported as having 
deserted. Of those remaining, 380 were widows with a propor- 
tionate number of fatherless children. The number of farms 
left uncultivated was placed at 12,000.^ In March, 1783, the 
single district of Montreal, which lay just north of New York 
state, contained its maximum number of refugees (not includ- 
ing enUsted loyalists), namely, 1,700, who were distributed at 
17 posts and magazines mthin the district. During the follow- 
ing summer, fleets of transports sailed up the river St. Law- 
rence on their way from New York City to Quebec, bearing over 
1,300 more. Seven hundred of the latter were sent on to Sorel, 
a fortified place at the mouth of the Richelieu, where they re- 
mained until lands could be assigned them for permanent set- 
tlement. This took place during the year 1784. A census of 
that year shows that approximately 5,500 disbanded troops and 
loyaHsts received grants in the province of Quebec. Of these 
about one-fourth were settled east of the St. Lawrence, that is, 
at 3 posts on the RicheHeu, and on the eastern and southern 
shores of the Gaspe Peninsula. Most of the others, or about 
3,000 married and single men, were sent up the St. Lawrence, 
being assigned lands in a series of towmships laid out for them 
west of Montreal in what is now the province of Ontario. The 
residue either scattered among the older communities or, despite 
the opposition of Haldimand, located on seigniorial lands along 
the Vermont frontier. Immigration continued during the sub- 

2 See the author's paper on "The American Loyalists in the Eastern Seigniories 
and Townships of the Province of Quebec," in Royal Society of Canada, Tram- 
actions, 1913. 

3F. W. Halsey, The Old New Torh Frontier, 1614-1800 (New York, 1901), 313. 



188 W. H. Siehert ^^- V- h. e. 

sequent years, the English population in Lower Canada reach- 
ing about 20,000 by 1791, due chiefly to the influx of loyalists. 

The process of segregating this element from New Hampshire, 
Vermont, and eastern New York, which was performed by the 
military posts of Lower Canada, was duplicated for the back 
country by Fort Niagara and Detroit. At Fort Niagara this 
process began soon after Captain John Butler arrived there 
from Montreal in November, 1775, accompanied by several other 
refugees from Tryon Countj^ As a devoted loyalist, an ex- 
perienced leader of war parties, and an interpreter at Indian 
councils, Butler was well qualified to transform Niagara into a 
hotbed of Toryism, to help win the active support of the Six 
Nation Indians, and conduct operations against the border set- 
tlements. From among the loyalists who took shelter at the fort 
and those brought in by his emissaries, he began the organiza- 
tion of a corps of rangers, which the authorities at Quebec de- 
cided should consist of 8 companies. Despite losses and occa- 
sional desertions, he had 6 full companies enrolled by December, 
1778. Two months later (February 12) over 1,300 persons were 
drawing rations at Fort Niagara, of whom 445 were Indians and 
64 were members of "distressed families," chiefly from the Mo- 
hawk Valley. After Sullivan's raid up the Genesee River, the 
number of savages at the post increased to more than 5,000 (Sep- 
tember 21, 1779), and as Sullivan had destroyed 40 Indian vil- 
lages with their fields of maize, 3,000 of these aboriginees found 
themselves homeless and dependent on Niagara for clothing and 
provisions all winter. A scarcity of supplies, the severity of the 
season, and starvation brought the only relief possible to many. 
Another consequence of Sullivan's raid appears to have been 
the approximate completion of Butler's Eangers, notwithstand- 
ing the earlier casualties in every company. If space permitted, 
I might tell further of the constant arrival of fugitives at the 
fort from various quarters, including the Ohio country. Sufifice 
it to say that on October 1, 1783, there were 2,000 troops, loyal- 
ists, and Indians at Niagara, of whom about one-half were loy- 
alists.* 

4E. Cniikshank, Butler's Bangers and the Settlement of Niagara (Welland, 
1893), 27 et sc; F. H. Severance, Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier (2d ed., 
Cleveland, 1903), 56 et seq. 



Vol. I, No. 2 Dispersion of American Tories 189 

This number probably did not include the inhabitants of a 
refugee settlement which had been begun 3 years before by 
Haldimand's instructions on the west side of the Niagara River. 
That settlement was still small, numbering scarcely more than a 
hundred persons at the beginning of December, 1783.^ In June 
of the f ollomng year, Butler 's regiment w^as disbanded and the 
little colony opposite the fort suddenly gained a population of 
620 rangers and others.*^ By the end of another twelvemonth the 
increase amounted to 20 per cent more, or a total of 770/ Mean- 
Avhile, before the close of the year 1784, most of the Six Nations, 
or Iroquois Confederacy, had removed to the reservation which 
had been set apart for them along the Grand River. This lay 
west of the Niagara colony, its settlers numbering about 1,000, 
not counting a few disbanded soldiers who made their homes 
among the Indians. Another reservation, situated on the north 
side of Lake Ontario near Cataraqui (now Kingston), was oc- 
cupied by a part of the Mohawk tribe. 

For the expanse of country at the west end of Lake Erie, De- 
troit served the same purposes during the period as Fort Niaga- 
ra at the east end: it was the center of tribal gatherings, the 
asylum of Tory refugees, and the source of successive raids into 
Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. In March, 1777, Sir Henry Ham- 
ilton, the lieutenant governor at Detroit, was empowered to raise 
as many loyalists and savages as possible to send out against 
the neighboring communities. From this time may be dated the 
embodiment of the corps known as the ''Detroit Volunteers," 
which gained leadership on the arrival, in 1778, of Simon Girty, 
Matthew Elliot, and Alexander McKee, all of whom were fugi- 
tives from Fort Pitt. Girty in particular was the instigator of 
war parties in which the Wyandot and other tribes cooperated 
with the royalists in harrying the frontier and gathering in 
adherents of the crown. When peace returned the colonization 
of the region east of the Detroit River followed. The officers 
commanding the king's ships on Lake Erie were soon authorized 
to transport free of expense such disbanded loyalists as chose to 
settle at the mouth of the river just named. At the same time 

5 Canadian Archives, B. 169 : 1. 

6 Canadian Archives, B. 168 : 38-41. 

7 Ibid. 



190 W. H. Siebert m. v. h. e. 

McKee, Girty, and a few others, including Captain William Cald- 
well of Butler's Rangers, secured from the Ottawa Indians deeds' 
to Colchester and Gosfield townships (known as ''The Two Con- 
nected Townships") on the lake front and opened them to col- 
onization. Under the rule that grants of this sort could be 
made only by the crown, the Indians were induced to reconvey 
these districts to the Canadian government; and in 1788, Major 
Mathews, who had been sent from Quebec to Detroit for the 
purpose, laid out the two townships in 109 lots, and confirmed 
the original squatters in their possessions, although the final ad- 
justment was not reached until five years later. During this 
period a land board, whose members were chiefly American loy- 
alists, was in control, carrying on surveys on Lake Erie and the 
Detroit and Thames rivers, correcting conflicting claims and 
making grants. Those who were to have participated in the 
formation of "The New Settlement" in the townships on the 
lake were to have received provisions and tools, like loyalist set- 
tlers elsewhere ; but long delays discouraged many, and the pro- 
moters of the settlement were forced to witness the return of 
perhaps a hundred or more to the states. Others, who had 
drawn lots in The Two Connected Townships, preferred to lo- 
cate on the River Thames, where the soil was of a better qual- 
ity. Thus, the land board of the district of Hesse had plenty 
to do in dealing with the accumulation of nearly 300 petitions 
that were before it in 1791. The New Settlement began about 
five miles east of the Detroit River and extended for a distance 
three times as great along Lake Erie. The region next to the 
river remained for a time unsettled, partly because of its marshy 
character and partly on account of doubtful claims. In Janu- 
ary, 1793, however, Lieutenant Governor Simcoe and his council 
took action constituting this tract the township of Maiden and 
granting it to McKee, Elliot, and Caldwell, while at the same 
time confirming the possession of those settlers who had already 
made improvements there.^ 

In the spring of 1791, when Patrick McNiff, deputy surveyor 
at Detroit, laid out four townships on the River Thames, two on 
each side of the stream, he found twenty-eight families already 

s A. Fraser, Third Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 
1905 (Toronto, 1906), 222, 223. 



Vol. I, No. 2 Dispersion of American Tories 191 

there. These people appear not to have been molested, presum- 
ably on account of their previous adherence and services to the 
crown, and by February, 1793, the land board had granted certifi- 
cates for all the lots surveyed in this region, extending to two and 
one-half townships in length. Among those who found homes 
here and in The New Settlement was a considerable group of 
Butler's men. Other refugees took up lands along the Detroit 
and St. Clair rivers, and in localities nearby. The trials of these 
people in obtaining lands is illustrated by the experience of 
Frederick Arnold, who chose lots for himself and his son on the 
Thames at the time of the survey, but testified before the land 
board in the fall of the same year (1791) that these lots had been 
occupied by others. He also testified that he had brought in 
twenty-five famihes in 1784, none of whom had yet been able to 
''procure an establishment on the King's waste lands" and were 
threatening to return to the states.* 

Another movement of loyalists into the Lake Erie region that 
can be definitely traced resulted in the colonization of Long 
Point. As early as September, 1792, Lieutenant Governor Sim- 
coe proposed a plan for a mihtary settlement here, stating that 
those to be brought in should be brave and determined loyalists. 
Although this project was approved by the British government 
several years later, it was frustrated by Governor General Dor- 
chester who objected on the score of the needless expense in- 
volved. Meantime, a few squatters, mostly loyalists, had wan- 
dered in and, finding the region to their taste, had cleared farms 
for themselves to which they were not able to secure legal title. 
It was not, indeed, until Simcoe had departed for England (in 
1796) that proclamations were issued inviting settlers into this 
district, and appealing especially to the United Empire loyal- 
ists. The immigrants who responded w^ere chiefly of this class 
from Lower Canada and New Brunswick, the great majority 
having lived in the latter province for a decade or longer. Some 
came by land, following the Indian trails ; but most of them came 
in open boats, coasting along the northern shores of Lake On- 
tario and Lake Erie. If courage and determination were deemed 
necessary qualifications for the pioneers of Norfolk County, 
surely these qualities cannot be denied to the forty-seven fami- 

sFraser, Third Report Bureau of Archives, 152. 



192 W. H. Siebert m. v. h. e. 

lies who are known to have made the long and hazardous jour- 
ney to Long Point between the years 1792 and 1812 and to have 
distributed themselves throughout five of its townships/" 

Before 1783 there had been but little settlement in Upper Can- 
ada; but the closing year of the Revolution witnessed the arri- 
val in this section of 10,000 loyalists ; during 1784 this popula- 
tion doubled, and by 1791 it was estimated at 25,000. The rec- 
ords of the land office of Ontario indicate that no less than 
3,200,000 acres had been granted to this class of people who had 
settled in Upper Canada before 1787." It is, of course, signi- 
ficant that in 1791 Parliament passed the Constitutional Act sep- 
arating the western province from the old province of Quebec. 

If now we turn to those towns on the Atlantic coast which the 
British held for longer or shorter periods, we find that they also 
were the asylums of refugees, a fact made clear as they were 
successively evacuated. There were, to be sure, flights of in- 
dividuals and families in considerable numbers from these coast 
towns from 1774 on. When Judge Samuel Curwen, a refugee 
from Salem, Massachusetts, arrived in London in July, 1775, 
he found — to use his own words — ' ' an army of New England- 
ers ' ' already there. A month later he wrote to another fugitive 
from Massachusetts, who with wife and children had gone to 
Halifax, that the "army" of exiles in London were "lamenting 
their own and their country 's unhappy fate. ' ' ^- Evidently, then, 
the English metropolis was already a city of refuge for many 
American loyalists, and Halifax was beginning to shelter some of 
the same class. Only seven months later, however, the capital of 
Nova Scotia was to experience such a visitation of refugees as 
London itself had probably not yet experienced ; for when Howe's 
fleet sailed from Boston in March, 1776, it was accompanied by 
over eleven hundred hapless exiles. As Lieutenant Govern- 
or Oliver had carefully estimated the number of loyalists 
under his charge towards the end of the previous January 
at "upwards of 2,000," we may fairly suppose that many an- 
ticipated the evacuation by an earlier departure to Nova Scotia, 

10 Ontario Historical Society, Fapers and Becords, 2 : 43-47, 68, 69. 

11 Fraser, Third Seport Btireau of Archives, passim, 

12 Samuel Curwen, Journal and Letters (G. A. Ward, ed. — New York, 1845), 31, 
34. 



Vol. I, No. 2 Dispersion of American Tories 193 

to Penobscot, or to Great Britain. Three weeks after the ar- 
rival of the Boston contingent in Hahfax, Oliver wrote to Lord 
George Germain of the colonial office describing the distressing- 
situation of his proteges in Nova Scotia, forced as they were to 
pay ''six fold the usual Rent" for miserable lodgings and 
''more than double the former price for every Necessary of 
Life." Such relief as could be had came only from the abund- 
ant supply of fish in the harbor and the issuance of fuel and pro- 
visions to loyalists as well as soldiers. The result was that 
many of the principal refugees applied to Howe forthwith for a 
passage to Europe at the expense of government, and were 
promised the first transport that could be spared for the pur- 
pose. ^^ Ample evidence shows that various companies of Bos- 
tonians sailed from this port for England at different times, 
their successive arrivals being recorded by Curwen and by 
Hutchinson, the refugee governor of Massachusetts, from early 
in June to near the close of July, 1776.^* Philadelphia, at its 
evacuation, witnessed the departure of almost three times the 
number carried by Howe to Halifax. So great was the con- 
course of inhabitants which withdrew from this place that the 
fleet in the Delaware could accommodate none of the evacuating 
troops, who took up the line of march for New York City. The 
fleet sailed for the same destination, which was already the 
mecca of persecuted loyalists, northern and southern, and re- 
mained so throughout the war.^^ 

For some time William Knox, a Georgia loyalist who was 
under-secretary in the colonial office in London, had cherished 
the plan of establishing a separate province for these proscribed 
fellow countrymen of his; and at length, in September, 1778, 
General Clinton was ordered to secure a post on the Penobscot 
River as the first step to that end. In the following June and 
July, the post was duly established and soon became, in the 
picturesque language of the Massachusetts leaders, a "viperine 

13 E. Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston (Boston, 1849), 311, 312; 
Lieutenaut Governor Thomas Oliver to the Earl of Dartmouth, Public Eecord Office, 
Colonial Office, 5.21:297; Lieutenant Governor Oliver to Lord George Germain, Hal- 
ifax, April 21, 1776, ibid., 5.21: 159. 

i^Siebert, The Flight of American Loyalists to the British Isles (Columbus, 1911), 
6, 7. 

^5 Ibid., 8, 9. 



194 W. H. Siehert ^^- v. h. e. 

nest" which they tried to destroy, though without success. The 
fortress attracted Tories and their kindred from Maine and 
Massachusetts, became crowded to overflomng, and a village 
of substantial cottages, with wharves and stores, sprang up un- 
der its shadow. When the contest ended, Massachusetts was 
able to obtain by the unyielding diplomacy of her son, John 
Adams, what she had not secured by military siege : Penobscot 
was surrendered by the British, and a hundred and fifty families, 
together with part of the garrison, were removed to Passama- 
quoddy Bay, there to be joined by various associations of loy- 
alists from New York and elsewhere. As most of these groups 
were still within disputed territory, a boundary question arose 
which was not solved for many years.^® Knox's scheme of a 
loyalist province failed, it is true, but it is also true that the 
people who were its beneficiaries participated in the settlement 
and organization of a greater loyalist province a little to the 
eastward of the one proposed, namely, the province of New 
Brunswick. 

At the time when Passamaquoddy was settled. New Bruns- 
wick was still a part of Nova Scotia, and as such shared with 
that province in the great immigration from New York. Ac- 
cording to the official enumeration of the British commissary 
general, dated November 24, 1783, 29,244 persons sailed from 
that port for various parts of Nova Scotia,^^ Of this number 
about 12,000, including 11 royalist corps, settled north of the 
Bay of Fundy; and before another year elapsed succeeded in 
having that region erected into an independent province. Mean- 
while, the remaining or peninsular portion of Nova Scotia gained 
17,300 colonists, all from New York, besides 5,000 or more from 
other quarters. Their settlements, of which upwards of a score 
may be counted, took form chiefly along the southern shore of 
the peninsula ; and a large part of the lumber, with which they 

16 S. F. Batchelder, The Life and Surprising Adventures of John Nutting, Cam- 
bridge Loyalist (Cambridge, 1912) ; G. A. Wheeler, Castine, Past and Present, the 
Ancient Settlement of Pentagoet, and the Modern Town (Boston, 1896), 311-313; 
Maine Historical Society, Collections, ser. 2, vol. 1:395-400; W. F. Ganong, "A 
Monograph of the Evolution of the Boundaries of the Province of New Brunswick," 
in Royal Society of Canada, Transactions, ser. 2, vol. 7, sec, 2. 

17 Fi-aser, Second Report of the Bu,reau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 
1904 (Toronto, 1905), 11. 



Vol. I, No. 2 Dispersion of American Tories 195 

built their Imbitations, was supplied by the industry and com- 
mercial enterprise of their fellow exiles at Passamaquoddy Bay. 

Only a few hundreds of the southern loyalists went to the 
maritime provinces. The early reverses which the British suf- 
fered in Virginia sent Governor Dunmore and numbers of his 
sympathizers aboard the shipping at Norfolk in December, 
1775. After a delay of nearly eight months the crowded vessels 
set sail for various destinations, one for Glasgow, others for 
England, and still others for Antigua, Bermuda, and East 
Florida. About the same time refugees from the Carolinas and 
Georgia began finding their way into the two Floridas, many 
taking service in the provincial regiments there. At length, 
in July and December, 1782, the evacuations of Savannah and 
Charleston, respectively, took place. Three months after the 
former event a census showed that the population of East Flor- 
ida had been nearly doubled by the influx of 3,340 whites and 
blacks from Georgia, exclusive of those w^ho had arrived before 
the evacuation. Simultaneously with this census, numbers of 
loyalists, military and civilian, began embarking from Charles- 
ton for St. Augustine, among these being the North and South 
Carolina regiments and a body of merchants and planters. Then, 
on December 14, came the formal evacuation of Charleston, with 
the result of the sudden trebling of the population of East Flor- 
ida; and by Maj^, 1783 (according to the figures of General Mc- 
Arthur, who was in command in that province) it quadrupled, 
reaching a total of 16,000, of whom McArthur estimated 5,400 
were whites and 9,600, blacks. In the meantime, the merchants 
who had come in were accommodated with houses in St. Augus- 
tine, the planters were placed on unoccupied lands in the coun- 
try, and a little town sprang up at the bluff on St. John's River. 
As provisions and tools were badly needed the authorities ex- 
erted themselves to furnish these supplies. 

Thus far, in considering the withdrawal of the British from 
Charleston and Savannah I have accounted for less than half 
of the numbers who left these two ports, for in each case less 
than half went to East Florida Of the 7,000 who sailed from 
Savannah, Governor Wright, other officers, and part of the gar- 
rison disembarked at Charleston; General Alured Clark and 
part of the British regulars sailed for New York, and the re- 



196 W. H. Siehert ^- ^'- H- e. 

mainder — loyalists and their Negroes — proceeded to Jamaica. 
Of the 9,121 persons, white and black, who left Charleston (not 
counting the troops) nearly 3,900 embarked for Jamaica; 470, 
for Halifax, and smaller numbers for St. Lucia, England, and 
New York. The Georgians and Carolinians who settled in 
Jamaica were joined by other refugees from Honduras and the 
Mosquito Coast, from Pensacola and St. Augustine, from New 
York City, and after 1785 from Shelburne in Nova Scotia. The 
fact that Jamaica made a gain of 11,500 white inhabitants alone 
between the years 1775 and 1787 is explained in no small degree 
by the continual inflow of American loyalists during that period. 
Several of the smaller islands of the British West Indies (St. 
Lucia, St. Christopher, Antigua, and probably others) experi- 
enced accessions that were relatively large for them. 

The conquest of West Florida by the Spanish in May, 1781, 
resulted in the departure of many of its provincial defenders to 
New York City and of a few to Jamaica, as already mentioned. 
After the treaty of Versailles, by which both East and West 
Florida were ceded to Spain and the Bahamas were obtained in 
exchange, the loyalists in the eastern province were left only the 
choice between submitting to Spanish rule and preserving their 
fealty by withdrawing to a British possession. What was more 
natural, then, than that the Bahamas should be regarded as the 
true Land of Canaan by the thousands awaiting a second or even 
a third expatriation in East Florida. But this did not prove to 
be the case. The loyalists did not propose to pass through the 
ordeal of another general exodus without adequate knowledge 
of their destination in advance. Meanwhile, two shiploads de- 
parted for England. At length, in the fall of 1783, Lieutenant 
AVilson of the engineers was dispatched from St. Augustine to 
make the round of the Bahama Islands and report on their avail- 
ability for colonization. His report was reassuring : it ascribed 
their uncultivated condition to the indolence of the inhabitants, 
who it declared contented themselves with whatever nature pro- 
duced by her unaided efforts. The opportune arrival of some 
government transports (September 12) started the movement, 
and from that time a steady stream of refugees poured into the 
Bahamas, unoccupied lands being granted them free of quit 
rents for ten years. Upwards of fifteen hundred persons 



f 



/ 



Vol. T, No. 2 Dispersion of American Tories 197 

from St. Augustine engaged to settle on Great Abaco Is- 
land, and we know that an almost equal number embarked at 
New York for the same place in August and September, 1783. 
New Providence, Cat, Long, and Crooked islands, and doubtless 
others, profited by this migration ; but it is difficult to arrive at 
a correct estimate of the total increase of the Bahama popula- 
tion due to this movement, A committee of the House of As- 
sembly of the islands reported in 1789 that the increase for the 
years 1784 and 1785 amounted to twelve hundred loyalists and 
thirty-six hundred colored people, the latter brought in by the 
former ; but we are not informed how many came in during 1783. 
Perhaps it is safe to say that the Bahamas gained between six 
thousand and seven thousand of both races as the result of the 
exodus from the mainland.^^ It has been estimated that before 
1783 England received about two thousand from New York 
alone ; ^^ but it should not be forgotten that other x\merican 
ports, both northern and southern, together contributed certain- 
ly no less a number before the war closed, and that needy Tories 
from over the sea continued to seek financial relief in London 
for some years after the war. In this paper only casual refer- 
ence has been made to the political and other effects of the dis- 
persion of the American loyalists. Without attempting to dis- 
cuss this subject at the present time, it must suffice to say mere- 
ly that the accession of these people marked an epoch in the his- 
tory of Jamaica and the Bahamas, the maritime provinces, and 
Lower and Upper Canada. Their work was essentially that of 
sturdy pioneers and political organizers ; and, while their strain 
lasts, England need have no fears concerning the loyalty of her 
American provinces. 

Wilbur H. Siebert 
Ohio State University 
Columbus 

18 Siebert, "Legacy of the American Revolution to the British West Indies and 
Bahamas" (Ohio State University, Bulletin, 17, no. 27 [Columbus, 1913]). 

19 A. C. Flick, Loyalism in New YorTc during the American Eevolution (New 
York, 1901). 



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